• Picnic time: The Brooklyn Bridge Park concession stand collaboration between No. 7 Sub and Luke's Lobster opens 11 a.m. on Monday. The window service operation is located inside the Smokestack Building at 11 Water Street. [Grub Street]

• Maison Premiere is hosting a Memorial Day party on Monday. The celebration will begin at noon with chilled seafood, oyster po' boys, plenty of booze, and live music. It's first-come, first-served. [Grub Street]

• Heading to the Hamptons this weekend? There will be a Beurre & Sel pop-up at Lucy's Whey in East Hampton on Saturday and Sunday. The pop-up will return for Fourth of July weekend. [Grub Street]

• Campbell's Soup announced its acquisition of baby-food brand Plum Organics yesterday. It's one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley. [Forbes]

• Beginning June 3, Tertulia will start doing Monday Night Roasts of whole animals. Seamus Mullen will start with suckling pig, which will come with family-style sides, dessert, and free-flowing cider. Each month will feature a different meat, and the dinner's priced at $75 per person for four or more guests. But if your group is fewer than four, there's a $40 prix fixe option. [Grub Street]

Filed Under: leftovers, beurre & sel, campbell's, lucy's whey, maison premiere, plum organics, tertulia

There is an odd ice-cream truck making the rounds in the far reaches of Queens. It sells Tweety Bird ice pops and frozen SpongeBob SquarePants treats (with gumballs for eyes) like the rest, but instead of blasting the conventional — or counterfeit — version of the Mr. Softee jingle or a demented "Turkey in the Straw," this one only puts out a depressed, tinkly version of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns." No one, not even the truck's driver, knows why. [Glorified Tomato via WyckoffHeights.com, Related]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: meltdowns, ice cream men, ice cream trucks, send in the clowns

In response to what it says amounts to a sneaky move, the company that makes Magic Hat beer has filed a federal lawsuit against the Lexington, Kentucky-based West Sixth Brewing Co. over similarities between the two companies' logos. (See them side-by-side here for comparison.) Florida Ice & Farm, the company that owns Magic Hat, claims it first tried negotiating with the start-up brewer last year after a wholesaler alerted them to the logos, which both feature numbers and stars in a round-label setting. Magic Hat alleges West Sixth's owners agreed to modify their design, but then "abruptly changed their minds" and initiated a grassroots-y social media campaign targeting the Costa Rica-based parent company.

The Kentucky brewery announced it had been the target of "corporate bullying" and published an open letter asking beer lovers to sign a petition to get Magic Hat to lay off. "They call our six an 'inverted nine,' rather than an entirely separate number," West Sixth co-owner Ben Self tells WFPL. "Which is pretty silly, everybody knows that a six and a nine are not the same thing."

Lexington Brewery West Sixth Locked In Trademark Dispute With Magic Hat Brewing Co. [WFPL]
Magic Hat Responds to West Sixth Social Media Campaign Over Logo Design Lawsuit -Full Legal Documents [My Beer Buzz]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: beer me, beer, lawsuits, magic hat, west sixth brewing

A new study conducted by Harvard Medical School found that people are largely unaware of the amount of calories in fast food — and teens are the most clueless. It's not shocking news that high-school kids think they're eating a 497-calorie meal when it's actually 756, and that Subway is the most deceiving chain. But if caloric information is more readily available, will young people actually give a shit? Should they? Even if teens are aware that McDonald's Egg-White McMuffin is 250 calories, that doesn't mean it's actually healthy (it's got high-fructose corn syrup and tons of preservatives). Once they're inside fast-food franchises, kids are going to go crazy regardless of calorie counts. The real issue is getting them to not go into these places at all. [Earlier, CBS]

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: obesity, fast food, food news, health, teenagers

Rather than to entrust his frozen inventory to an associate, an unnamed ballpark food vendor brought his supply of snow cones into a bathroom stall during an Astros game earlier this week, then placed the entire tray on the floor next to him while he sat on the toilet. In the accompanying, depressing video, reporters talk about how they "broke" the story with the "exclusive" cell-phone video. "This unsanitary vendor might have sold his snow cones to you or your children," the reporter intones, in the most serious newsman voice you can imagine, "had he not been caught on tape first." The Snow Cone peddler was fired "immediately." [KPRC/NBC]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: not cool, food safety, houston, sno cones

Reps for the French chef announced this afternoon that later this year he'll open the second branch of his four-year-old, casual East Village restaurant DBGB Kitchen & Bar at the Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas. The bistro derives its name, but not much else, from New York's gone and lamented punk institution CBGB. There is little formal service and fewer white tablecloths, but there's an abundance of sausages, oysters, and a mind-boggling array of housemade charcuterie. (There are also baked Alaska and sundaes delivered by trolleys.)

In keeping with the ineluctable "chefs as rock stars" motif, Boulud's downtown dining room is decorated with beat-up cookware signed over by his equally famous peers — you'll be eating your burger and suddenly realize you're basking under a copper rondeau that once belonged to Bocuse. Or light from Thomas Keller's zabaglione bowl, functioning here like a disco ball, will hit your eye, and then everything else hits you: Your fellow customers aren't sneaking off outside during the meal to smoke joints on the sidewalk, they're just adjusting Instagram filters on snapshots of pork belly. The “French Brasserie meets American Tavern” opens — with a big bar of wine and craft beer to match — later this year.

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: expansions, daniel boulud, dbgb, las vegas, las vegas restaurants, restaurants

Springfield from The Simpsons isn't actually in Florida, but a Springfield-themed park inspired by the show is coming this summer to Universal Studios Orlando. What this means for you food-wise is that a real-life Duff Brewery will open and suds will ship out next door to the bona fide Moe's Tavern, which is entirely likely to be much more well-lit and kid-friendly than its small-screen dive-bar counterpart. The Frying Dutchman, Krusty Burger, doughnut shop Lard Lad, a shop selling Bumblebee Man's “Tacos Freshos," and Luigi's Pizza will round out the fine food establishments. Eater spots Cletus' Chicken Shack and other food landmarks from the show's 24 seasons, which you can check out — Danny Elfman score and all — straight ahead.

Springfield Comes to Life at Universal Orlando This Summer [Universal Orlando via Eater]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: cartoon food, cletus' chicken shack, duff brewery, frying dutchman, krusty burger, kwik-e-mart, lard lad, moe's tavern, the simpsons, the simpsons theme park, theme parks, tv, universal orlando, universal studios

Of course not, but that hasn't stopped the soda company from making a promotional video that touts Coca-Cola's desire "to break down barriers and create a simple moment of connection between two nations." And how did they do that? With vending machines in each country that show live video feeds from the vending machines in the other country. (Think Apple's Facetime, but with the intention to both resolve the Kashmir dispute and sell soda.) As Ad Age tells it, "The idea was to let citizens of both countries — long embroiled in a bitter political and religious battle — see and interact with each other, even complete shared tasks. Once those tasks were accomplished, the machines dispensed a Coke." Simple! Problem solved! You're welcome, world. Why haven't Israel and Palestine thought of this yet?

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: marketing gimmicks, coca-cola

A big step for food transparency: There's a new federal rule that requires labels of steaks and roasts (but not ground meat) to reveal not only the animal's country of origin, but also where it was raised and slaughtered. The World Trade Organization found that when using the old labels, which only showed the country of origin, people discriminated against livestock imported from Canada and Mexico. The Obama-administration-supported rule went effect yesterday, and it'll cost grocery stores and manufacturers anywhere from $53.1 to $192.1 million. [AP]

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: pedigree, food news, government, meat, steak

If you follow restaurants in New York at all, you've seen or heard Maimon Kirschenbaum's name. It's synonymous with — some would say infamous for — a steady stream of wage-violation lawsuits brought against star chefs such as Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, and Keith McNally (he's won settlements from all three), and he's targeted restaurants like Nobu, Philippe, and Le Bernardin. Depending on your point of view, he's either a modern-day Robin Hood, fighting for workers' rights in a business full of corruption, or an ambulance-chasing bully determined to put the city's restaurants out of business.

Sitting in his office in the Woolworth Building near City Hall, Maimon Kirschenbaum doesn't look like the man whose lawsuits Joe Bastianich once accused of "shaking the very foundation of Manhattan's restaurant industry." Dressed in a Gap hoodie, jeans, and Nikes, the 34-year-old looks more like a kid just out of yeshiva. He even has a signed David Tyree photo on his wall.

But by his own count he's filed somewhere between 100 and 200 suits on behalf of restaurant employees (he filed one against SD26 in mid-March). He's been called things like the "scourge of restaurateurs" or, less dramatically, a thorn in the industry's side — one that's cost New York restaurateurs north of $40 million in legal settlements.

Kirschenbaum actually grew up in the restaurant industry. His mother, a caterer and chef, was the namesake of Levana’s, a pioneering upscale kosher restaurant run by Kirschenbaum’s uncles. He also grew up attending the same Upper West Side synagogue as Charles Joseph, who would later become his partner at the law firm Joseph, Herzfeld, Hester & Kirschenbaum. Kirschenbuam worked at Joseph’s law firm before, during, and after graduating from Fordham law school in 2005. The following year, he recalls, a plaintiff suing Smith & Wollensky for wage violations got in touch after hearing about him from a mutual acquaintance.

Kirschenbaum says, “I didn’t even know there were these kind of cases.” After news of the Smith & Wollensky suit reached the press, Kirschenbaum was contacted by Shameless Restaurants, a now-defunct website that catered to disgruntled service-industry professionals, and asked if he’d post his contact information publicly. Kirschenbaum agreed and got a few more cases that way. "We had a pretty open policy, which was if you have a case against a restaurant, no matter how big or how small, we’re going to take it. It gives you an edge.” Similar wage-violation lawsuits against Heartland Brewery, B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, Nobu, and Jean Georges followed; the latter two, Kirschenbaum recalls, “got insane press."

The timing coincided perfectly with the rise of the celebrity chef: Between 2006 and 2008, there was a large surge in restaurant lawsuits, a phenomenon Kirschenbaum partially attributes to the increased visibility of chefs on reality cooking shows. Every editor knows legal woes of the rich and famous make good copy, and now chefs could be targets, too. "I was a young kid, and I dress like a schlump, and I didn’t have, like, a fancy office or I didn’t look the part or whatever," Kirschenbaum says. "But we started suing people, and it made a big splash, like, 'Oh, I’m suing famous celebrity chef A.'"

Here's how the suits work. The complaints address any of three types of violations: restaurant owners who require staff to share tips with managers or back-of-the-house staff, fail to pay employees for all hours worked (altering time cards to avoid overtime pay, for example), or charge mandatory tips at private events without properly distributing them to the staff.

When a potential plaintiff comes to Kirschenbaum with a complaint, his team files a class-action suit so that anyone who says they were victims of a restaurant's violations can be a part of the case. Kirschenbaum's most prescient move was realizing that the increased media attention empowered his clients, not the chefs. So Kirschenbaum himself announces his suits via media releases. The publicity that attended his better-known cases drew potential plaintiffs out of the woodwork. “By the time the defendant would hire a lawyer and call me, I’d already have 35 plaintiffs signed on,” he says. “So instead of their lawyer calling me and saying, ‘You’ve got one guy, I’m going to offer him $15,000 and shut this thing down,’ it would be like, ‘Okay, now I have 37 people, what are you going to do?’ They have to essentially settle it as a class action.”

Owners have said that settling is just cheaper than letting a suit drag out through the legal system, but since the cases don't go to court, it raises the main question surrounding Kirschenbaum's practice: Are the restaurants being sued really doing anything illegal, or has Kirschenbaum identified a legal gray area that he can exploit?

Carolyn Richmond, a lawyer for numerous restaurateurs, told the Post that suits like Kirschenbaum’s are “a disaster for many small operators” and remarked to Crain’s that “from our perspective, [such lawsuits are] a scam.” In the same article, Andrew Rigie, the executive vice-president of the city chapter of the New York Restaurant Association, claimed that “the litigious atmosphere in New York” was compelling operators to open establishments in other cities.

Clark Wolf, a hospitality-industry consultant for nearly 30 years who has worked with restaurants like the Monkey Bar and (coincidentally) Smith & Wollensky, sees it another way: The wage-violation suits are "usually directed at people who can afford it, and it gives a heads-up to the rest of the industry." Of Kirschenbaum's media-leaning tactics, he says, "Just because someone is a little bit obnoxious doesn’t mean he’s wrong.”

One thing that isn't up for debate are Kirschenbaum's results: In April 2012, Kirschenbaum won an $8.5 million class-action settlement against Pier Sixty banquet hall, which is believed to be the largest settlement of its kind (workers claimed they weren’t receiving their share of service charges); in 2009, Kirschenbaum won $2.5 million for Nobu workers who sued the sushi restaurant for tip and wage violations; and in 2008, he filed yet another wage and tip violation against Pastis and Balthazar, eventually winning a settlement of $1.5 million.

The most famous victory was against Mario Batali and Joe Bastiniach, whom Kirschenbaum issued a class-action complaint alleging wage and tip violations in 2010 that eventually led to a $5.25 million settlement that was distributed among 117 plaintiffs and others who worked for the eight restaurants in question between 2004 and 2012.

Of course, a huge chunk of any settlement goes right back to lawyers, but Kirschenbaum won't say how much money he's made off the suits. The Post points out that in the case of Kirschenbaum’s $2.5 million Nobu settlement, $833,333 went to his and other law firms, while the 500 workers got an average of $3,300. “That’s including workers who worked there for one day,” Kirschenbaum says. “People who worked there for a long time are making a significant sum of money. Obviously, they’re not making as much money as the attorneys who are recovering money for hundreds of similar individuals.”

"When we started, it was like they were petrified of suing restaurants," Kirschenbaum says. "And now it’s like every restaurant owner is walking around in fear of his employees, which is good, I think.”

Kirschenbaum clearly has New York's chefs and restaurant owners spooked. Every single chef we approached for this story wouldn't speak on-record, except one: Moshe Wendel, the chef-owner of Pardes, a kosher restaurant in Boerum Hill where Kirschenbaum is a regular. “I find him to be a very sweet, personable guy,” Wendel says. “But I don’t know him on the wrong end of the gun.”

Read more posts by Rebecca Flint Marx

Filed Under: profiles, chefs, maimon kirschenbaum, mario batali, new york

Celebrities who weren't vying for tickets to Leonardo DiCaprio's $4 million space voyage spent their money on sustenance this week. Lady Gaga continued her apparently endless healing process at Haru Sushi, Cameron Diaz and Nicki Minaj took a break from filming The Other Woman for lunch at Mulberry & Vine, and Rebel Wilson was on her best behavior at the General. This, and more, in our weekly roundup of celebrity dining.

Cheetah's Gentlemen's Club: Dennis Rodman celebrated his birthday here, refusing to comment on the fact that his pal Kim Jong-un was not in attendance. It's a shame: Strippers might have helped the North Korean dictator loosen up a bit. [NYDN]

Dos Caminos: Teen-mom-cum-porn-star Farrah Abraham chose the Mexican restaurant for lunch with an unidentified male. She looked "demure!" [US Weekly]

The General: Rebel Wilson "looked to be on a mission to make a good impression," chatting with Anne Sweeney at a party. Yes, Daily News, "Rebel with a cause." [NYDN].

The Great GoogaMooga: Maggie Gyllenhaal watched the Flaming Lips with Peter Sarsgaard, before the food festival got rained out. [Page Six/NYP]

Greenwich Project: Jamie Foxx choose the newish restaurant for a few friends' birthday celebrations. [NYDN]

Haru Sushi: We thought Juice Generation cured Lady Gaga, but Mother Monster is still mending. She was able to climb stairs at the Gramercy sushi spot. [NYDN]

Pepela: Bill Clinton stopped at the Upper East Side restaurant for salad with the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. [NYDN]

Mulberry & Vine: Cameron Diaz stopped in the new Tribeca café after filming The Other Woman; her co-star Nicki Minaj was spotted out front. [Page Six/NYP]

Philip Marie: The Office's Ellie Kemper left Scranton for the West Village. [Page Six/NYP]

Stanton Social: The cast of The East, including Ellen Page and pro-cook Alexander Skarsgård, celebrated with red snapper tacos, beef carpaccio, and spicy lamb souvlaki. [People]

Sen: Lil Jon discussed tequila with the restaurant's owner, Tora Matsuoka, and had his assistant deliver a Christian Dior bag of Don Julio mid-meal to give to his new friend. Pimp status. [NYDN]

Read more posts by Lauren Duca

Filed Under: celebrity settings, cheetah's gentleman club, dos caminos, googamooga, greenwich project, haru sushi, mulberry and vine, new york, pepela, philip marie, restaurants, sen, stanton social, the general

In a plea for his fans to convince London department store Fortnum & Mason to stop selling foie gras, the high-maintenace animal-rights activist called out "Kate Muddleton" for eating the delicacy. "Unsurprisingly, this most savage and cruel commodity continues to be the favorite 'dish' of smiling mother-to-be Kate Muddleton (from whom, in fact, we expect no less.)," he writes on fan site True to You. "Foie gras production is illegal in the U.K., yet the ever-so-correct Fortnum & Mason have found suppliers in France who will keep their shelves stocked — possibly with the hope that smiling Kate will wobble in and place an order for her unborn child." So he's fat-shaming pregnant Kate, too? Oh, hell no! [Earlier, Cut, Guardian]

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: foiemageddon, animal cruelty, duchess of cambridge, england, foie gras, kate middleton, morrissey, prince charles

The Mission Chinese Food chef hit Late Night last night for a segment devoted to his signature thrice-cooked bacon (and, fair warning, an overt promotional plug for Bombay Sapphire East). If you follow the chef at all, there isn't much new info here — his food's spicy, his restaurants donate money to charity, he was once a pesto champ — but he's as charming as ever, and he does get a chance to talk about his upcoming Oklahoma fund-raiser. Check it out, straight ahead.

Earlier: Danny Bowien Headed to Oklahoma to Cook

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: video feed, chefs, mission chinese food, new york, san francisco, tv

Ivan Orkin's return to New York has been met with a response you might call rapturous fanfare as people await the opening of his Ivan Ramen shop on Clinton Street, now scheduled for mid-July. ("Hopefully," Orkin says of the date. "We're going through the throes of the build-out.") Even still, he says his own heart is still in Japan: "I didn't leave because I didn't like it. I left because it was time to do a new project." And so, while he gets his New York project together, he still found some time this week to head to Tokyo with his new chef. The goal: "We're gonna eat like motherfuckers." To read all about sushi and intestine hot pots in Japan, a Mission Chinese feast in New York, and lots and lots of ice-cream cake, read on in this week's Grub Street Diet.

Friday, May 17
Morning. Chobani pineapple yogurt — was in a hurry to get out the door.

I stopped at the Essex Street Market on the way to the shop and and bought a 35-cent banana to tide me over until lunch at Mission Chinese Food.

Met friends at Mission and we benefited from Danny's upcoming menu change. We got treated to amazing new dishes: cabbage salad with anchovy dressing, schmaltz-fried rice, unbelieveable rice noodles wtih sausage, and all the other classics. I ate so much I waddled out of the shop.

Power-walked from my shop to get a cortado at Abraço on First Ave and 7th Street. My favorite place for a cup — so deliciously bitter.

Walked through Union Square on my way to Paragon to use a gift certificate I got for my birthday and bought a Martin's Pretzel, probably one of my favorite things to eat. I once schlepped an eight-pound box on the plane back to Tokyo.

My boy turned 13, so we went to the local expat Japanese restaurant and had sushi for 20 bucks — and it's not bad, fun mix of expat Japanese and local Americans. Somehow I think of myself as expat Japanese ...

Got home and had Cold Stone Creamery chocolate ice-cream cake. Never much liked their ice cream, but I love their cakes.

Saturday, May 18
Woke up and had a freshly ground cup of Peet's coffee, which I've been drinking religiously since the eighties — have every morning.

Make my wife and 4-year-old — the big kids are still sleeping — breakfast quesadillas with cheese, avocados, and roast turkey. It sounds stupidly simple, but it is delicious.

Lunchtime it's Caeser salad, which I've been playing around with for the shop. It's a silky tofu dressing with a baby anchovy frico. I'm in love with it. More ice-cream cake for dessert.

A lull between meals, so a bowl of Berry Fruitful Kashi cereal with soy milk as a snack. My wife got five boxes for a buck apiece, and it's sort of healthy-ish, so I've been eating it every day, practically.

Fiftieth-birthday dinner for me at my sister's house. They knocked it out of the park with steak, shrimp, and chicken tacos cooked on the grill. And, of course, Cold Stone Creamery birthday cake. This time strawberry — a sacrifice, because chocolate is alway the first choice, but my older sister can't eat it.

Sunday, May 19
Natto and a raw farm egg whipped together on rice with a little scallion. It's one of my favorite breakfasts: creamy, gooey — everything a Western breakfast isn't. I could eat this everyday, but you have to buy special eggs at the Japanese market. In Japan you can eat any egg raw without worry.

I go to Ren's buddy Drew's birthday party, and they have lunch! Roast veg and portobello sandwiches, salad, mac and cheese, and chocolate chip cookies, Pretty fancy for a 4-year-old's birthday party.

Started to reach for a slice of ice-cream cake but found resolve and had a bowl of Kashi cereal with banana and soy milk. Later, my wife made everyone fruit smoothies, and I participated.

Headed to the Bronx with the fam for pho on Jerome Avenue. Great noodles and really funky, delicious bahn mi.

Came home, watched the new Star Trek for the umpteenth time, and succumbed to more ice-cream cake.

Monday, May 20
Grabbed an apple and a Fiber Plus bar — another massive coupon explosion at 60 cents a box. I hope I'll have time for real food later.

Was in the NYU neighborhood eating with the kids. Had a Sicilian slice, which is the first Sicilian I've had since I moved away. It was simple neighborhood pizza but nice and tasty. Meeting in between then, ate at an Asian café and had a grilled shiitake salad. Nice portion and refreshing — exactly what I wanted.  

Went to Eataly and looked at a pasta cooker I want to use at the restaurant. I figured I needed some ice cream, and I ended up getting apricot and anisette cookie sorbetto. It was good, but my GM Bill was along for the expedition, and I realized too late I should have gone for the chocolate hazelnut after tasting his.

Walked through Union Square on the way to the train and guzzled an ice-cold cup of apple cider. Not really the season, but refreshing anyway.

Walked through the door and there were three Cryovac'd prime rib eyes that were thawing and ready for the grill. Fired up the Weber, pressure-cooked some potatoes, and made a salad.

Each steak was a pound and a half, but with a bunch of boys staring at me with hungry eyes I wasn't worried about finishing them. With potatoes smashed and slathered with butter and Japanese ginger-carrot dressing, which will make some type of appearance on the menu at the shop — fabulous.

Ice-cream cake for dessert. Somebody help me finish this! It was only me and Ren this time. His had an addition of fresh strawberries, and he was very articulate about how they should be cut and placed on the plate.

Tuesday, May 21
Travel day to Japan.

Yogurt for breakfast: Started with Chobani apple but switched halfway through and finished my wife's apricot Active plus. Also had half an everything bagel with butter and cream cheese.

Had a fantasy of stopping somewhere in Queens for an awesome bite, but the Whitestone was backed up and I just made it to JFK with a few minutes to spare. We went to Terminal 4, where of course three days later Shake Shack was going to open. I settled for a ham and cheese heated in a magic oven.

On the plane I wolfed down peanuts and pretzels and an OJ. Then I broke into my Trader Joe's 78 percent dark chocolate tin.

"Chicken or beef?" Chicken it was, and as usual, I ate my food with embarrassing gusto, carefully slathering my stale roll with Land o Lakes butter, and ranch dressing on my iceberg. I left my shrimp salad untouched, as I always do. Never trust shrimp in coach.

I finished by carefully unwrapping my brownie and enjoying it more than I should have.

Seven hours into the flight I was handed a bag with a tiny ham-and-cheese sandwich and Milano cookies. The banana gets shoved aside; Hellman's squeezed all over my tiny sandwich, which I ate in two bites and followed with the Milanos.

"Shrimp-fried rice or omelette?" I stuck with the no-shrimp rule and took the omelette. Devoured the egg, sausage, and potato with the knowledge that good food was only a couple of hours away.

Wednesday, May 22
Back in Tokyo, and after cleaning up, we went out to my neighborhood sushi shop, which would be a four-star shop in NYC. I was greeted warmly, which is so nice, and we ordered the omakase, which among other things included a konbu-wrapped snapper, perfectly briny uni, and probably the most amazing sardines I've had in many years. After many more items and a delicious cask-aged shochu, we needed more!

We went to a great down-and-dirty restaurant specializing in motsu, or intestines. We got the montsu nabe (hot pot) that simmered in front of us, and as soon as the vegetables wilted, we dug in. 

It would have been prudent to stop then, but I hadn't had ice cream yet, and I certainly hadn't had ice cream in Japan yet. I ended up at Family Mart, one of the big chains, and settled in front of the freezer bin. Gari Gari Kun is my favorite ice pop: The middle is chunks of flavored ice wrapped in popsicle ice. My favorite flavor, chocolate, was not there, and the new flavor corn potage is just not for me. So I went for the strawberry mochi monaka. Monaka is a wafflelike thing stuffed with vanilla ice cream, mochi, and strawberry jam. It was good, and finally I was ready to call it a day.

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: the grub street diet, chefs, ivan orkin, ivan ramen, mission chinese food

• Saturdays Surf NYC is partnering with La Colombe for a signature blend of iced coffee. The fusion of ingredients from Brazil, Ethiopia, and El Salvador will be available in the shops and online. [Grub Street]

• After two years, Gilt Taste is closing. All products will now be sold through Gilt Home. [Eater]

• SAVOR's American Craft Beer & Food Experience event is on June 14 and 15 in the Altman Building on West 18th Street, with food from San Francisco's the Monk's Kettle. Purchase tickets here. [Grub Street]

• Murray's Cheese Bar is now serving lunch on Thursdays and Fridays. A flight of cheese is a fantastic mid-afternoon pick-me-up. [Grub Street]

• Rosemary’s is debuting juices during breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunch. The fresh-pressed beverages include carrot, apple and ginger, and green juice. [Grub Street]

• It wouldn't be Memorial Day weekend without Rippers. The Rockaway Beach hot spot will open this Saturday. Hooray! [Grub Street]

• Recently opened Soho spot Little Prince is adding lunch and brunch menus, with items like brioche pain perdu soaked in vanilla crème with berry compote and ricotta, and an exclusive "Nutella-esque" spread, created with Jacques Torres. [Grub Street]

Filed Under: leftovers, food news, gilt taste, little prince, murray's cheese bar, new york, restaurants, rippers, rosemary's, saturdays surf nyc